They actually tell our patient actors to do this so we get in the habit of asking in different ways to get all the patient history. So I ask about prior histories, and then when I do the abdominal exam I ask again about any surgeries (especially if I see a scar).

In all fairness, lots of pts don't know how to respond. I often hear of those who spend the better part of a day filling out the form sent to them ahead of time and the doc spending 7 seconds leafing through it before walking into the exam room.

Raquel - you don't understand! You see, when they are on lisinopril, Lipitor and Glucophage, their BP, lipids and glucose are normal, so They.Don't.Have.Hypertension/dyslipidemia/diabetes! Or so my patients also seem to reason (and yes, coumadin is always the last one to be mentioned as they are getting up to leave!) Not to mention previous malignancies...

When I worked an NCIC terminal, we had to flag missing people if they were violent. Person was missing from local 'home' for mentally ill. He was described as nonviolent, but he was on 3 sedating meds. I asked what happened when he wasn't taking them. "Oh, well then he gets right hard to handle, evil cuss..." Thank you for clarifying that.

I have a crazy family history of heart disease (heart attacks before age 40, diabetes, heart transplant relative, etc.), cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis. Honestly, I usually don't mention it to doctors.

i agree with a lot of you. i fill out the forms, answer the nurses questions then the doc asks the same damn questions.READ THE BLASTED FORM i just filled out with all the meds, surgeries, hospitalizations on it. i made a "fact" sheet with all that info on it so i could remember with dates and they don't read it.next time i'll just say "read first then ask?" but they'll probably boot me out because i've got an attitude. oh, well. what else is new

Lovinmyjob - It's not just the patients. I am on a beta blocker because of sinus tachycardia and my last visit my cardiologist told me I could cut my dose in half because I didn't need it anymore because my heart rate was normal. No lie and he was serious. He is no longer my cardiologist (and in the end I needed to double my dose to keep other symptoms under control)

We/they re-ask everything on the sheets because "that is everything I take" except for your herbals, over the counters, the psych meds prescribed by a different doctor, etc. I can get an extra 3-4 medications in most patients I talk to, even after they have written down what they take. I'm assuming it is the same for disease states.

the form is to satisfy the administrators who think that forms are important. the conversation is what determines the quality of your care. but i do check allergy lists and med lists. that pesky coumadin, plavix, asa, dabigatrin. and trickster practice patients are worse than worthless.

I can understand the answer sometimes. Heart disease and cancer? Well, yeah, I've had relatives die of those. The relatives were all over 86 years old and it was probably more likely they were going to die of heart attacks or cancers than automobile accidents, though...

Worse than the day-long forms are the offices which insist that the day-long forms must be filled out again once a year. Even if nothing has changed. I'm not allowed to take the existing form, cross out the medication I'm not taking anymore, initial and date the edit, and move on. Nope. I'm required to fill out the WHOLE THING again. I want to be a patient, not a clerk.

Now that I think of it, I might have this problem with my hand that flares up when I'm presented with long forms to be filled out for no good reason other than to satisfy some administrator. I'm so sorry, my hand hurts too much to write.

When performing admissions to home health, my telephone instuctions changed over the years from "Please get all of your medications together in one place so we can review them" to "I want you to bring everything from your bathroom and bedroom that you ever swallow, insert rectally, rub on your body, insert vaginally, inject into any part of your body, drop in your eyes, nose, or ears, gargle with, put on as a patch,or make tea or beverages out of."

"AND in their original packaging if you can!"

Amazing what folks, especially the geriatric set, do and do not consider "medications".

(and I won't even go into those on Lasix and furosemide with a dx of syncope...)

I don't mind filling out everything (although I do have problems sometimes remembering the surgeries other than the 9 knee ones) and I keep a list of my meds along with all of my doctors in my wallet & purse. My biggest problem is with doctors who don't have a clue about taking a medical history. It doesn't happen often now that I'm back with my pcp, have a good pain doc & all of my other specialists are at Vanderbilt (or associated therewith). I just occasionally have to report the baby docs to their mentors. "You might suggest to BabyDoc that they ask about thus & so when taking a medical history" etcetera.

Welcome to my whining!

This blog is entirely for entertainment purposes. All posts about patients may be fictional, or be my experience, or were submitted by a reader, or any combination of the above. Factual statements may or may not be accurate.

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